Marv Franz
About
Marv Franz is the principal of New Vantage. He consults to senior leaders, executive teams, and boards to unlock the potential of their organizations and leadership teams. He views his work as a 'calling' and brings an approachable and personal style to his engagement with clients.
Expertise
Marv has applied fourteen years of consulting experience to the needs of his clients in strategy design and execution, executive leadership development, executive leadership development, organizational culture and board governance in North America, South America, Africa and Asia. He has worked with over sixty organizations including small firms to multinationals in banking, consumer goods, advertising, health care, social services, international development, technology, sports and entertainment, energy, education, insurance and transportation, government sectors as well as other not-for-profit organizations. His leadership development work with a Canadian Government organization helped them to achieve the 2015 Governor General’s Order of Excellence, the highest national award for organizational excellence. This experience led to co-authoring his book, The Inspired Workplace: How Building Community at Work Unlocks Organizational Potential.
Experience
To serve his clients, Marv draws upon a unique combination of educational and past work experience. He holds an MBA from the School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University specializing in Strategy, holds university undergraduate degrees in Biology (B.Sc. hons) and Education (B.Ed), as well as two graduate theology degrees.
Prior to this, Marv has spent six years as a management consultant and partner with the Change Alliance and twelve years as a team and leadership developer in both Canadian university and international NGO contexts. Over this period he has worked as a manager within university student services departments at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, and Wilfrid Laurier in Waterloo, Ontario.
Here he developed and managed staff teams, offered leadership on university management teams, as well as created leadership curriculum, training programs and international service-learning teams in partnership with NGO’s in developing world contexts in Latin America and Africa.
Team
Jim Hurlburt, Senior Consulting Partner

Beginning in January, 2021
Jim says:
For the last 15 years, I've been fortunate to partner with the wonderful people at BNSF who daily engage in the truly high calling of railroading: safely moving the goods vital to our nation and economy! This pandemic year has only made the concept of calling and purpose stronger, more compelling. I’ve never been more proud to be part of such a great company, one clearly committed to its calling.
But this year has made other things clear too: seasons change. While the BNSF journey has been rewarding in countless ways - with life lessons and life-long friendships - I'm excited to share that a new season and calling will soon begin for me. Starting in January, 2021, I'll be taking my experience and expertise to join New Vantage, where our purpose is to unlock the potential of organizations, improve engagement and inspire the achievement of tangible business results.
Based in the Dallas Ft. Worth, Jim brings 25 years of broad business leadership experience, as a performance management consultant, business coach, as well as attorney and mediator. At BNSF Railway, a Berkshire Hathaway Company - Jim offered a unique blend of performance management consulting, coaching and mentoring, along with oral and written advocacy, to deliver consistent and outstanding business results for BNSF. He helped build and maintain strong business relationships with BNSF’s 13 Labor Organizations, providing expertise in employee engagement, next generation communications, conflict resolution, conflict management, knowledge management, change management, and leadership training. Jim successfully launched New Vantage’s Leadership Circle methodology inside BNSF, receiving wide positive acclaim from a broad range of internal business partners based on achieving sustained cultural change, talent retention, as well as broad positive personal and professional growth, all of which led to positive business results over an 18-month period.
Jim’s diverse experience in performance management comes from RLG International (Vancouver, BC) where he worked in the pulp and paper industry with Potlach Corporation (Lewiston, Idaho) and in Aerospace with Bell Helicopter (Fort Worth, Texas). Among other success stories with RLG, Jim was recognized for use of innovative tools and lasting behavior change. As an attorney, Jim has represented a wide range of clients, helping clients achieve desired legal and business results as a skilled litigator and mediator. Clients included Lloyds of London, State Farm, as well a wide range of business and commercial clients in Houston and Dallas/Ft. Worth. Jim’s excellence in innovation and continuous improvement twice resulted in receiving BNSF Achievement Awards as well as being a BNSF Employee of the Year.
Glem Dias, Strategic Partner

Based in Toronto, Glem provides expertise as an award-winning Leadership & Talent strategist, helping organizations unlock the potential of their talent. He has led full life cycle talent strategies at Pitney Bowes US, Walmart Canada and Morgan Stanley India. He has worked closely and tracked the careers of over 1000 executives and high-potential leaders from 20 countries over two decades. His work around accelerating millennials to be future leaders has been recognized as world-class and published by the Association for Talent Development (formerly ASTD).
He was the Global Director of Strategic Talent Management at Pitney Bowes Inc. His diverse experience comes from sectors such as investment banking, software, telecommunications, retail, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and not-for-profit. He has worked in the US, Canada, India, and has done assignments in Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. He was also responsible for executive and high-potential development at Wal-Mart Canada and HR Leader for Morgan Stanley India.
Glem is the Director of the Global Talent Centre at the Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC). He was instrumental in shaping the vision, strategy and model for this centre.